[Board] Sponsoring FOSS4G 2018

[Mark Iliffe]

Coolio - just seeing the vote get "blocked" raised a flag for me - good to
hear that there are no concerns here! Happy to defer on modalities, my LOC
and I are here if questions arise.

Cheers,

Mark

On 19 June 2018 at 19:32, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:

> No Concerns about LOC Mark, the discussion is about strategy. Indeed the
> board is trying to sort out options for providing additional support for
> the event. It is my hope that this will take an afternoon to sort out a new
> proposal.
>
> My own preference is to have several small discussions and not tie
> everything together.
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
>
> On Tue, 19 Jun 2018 at 16:03, Mark Iliffe <markiliffe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> To jump in...
>>
>> My instinct as my LOC will tell you is to jump on a call to hammer this
>> out and I’ve been sending way too many long emails to continue to follow
>> through in the final throes of FOSS4G this year.
>>
>> Would a call between the board and myself as Chair be amenable? I’ll be
>> available, any timezone to nail this down.
>>
>> I’m sorry to hear that votes to support he Conference are being blocked -
>> if there are concerns about FOSS4G in Dar, I want to hear them - especially
>> from our Board!! I would like to personally assure the board that we are
>> doing our very best to deliver the best FOSS4G ever. I am personally aware
>> of the weight that delivering a FOSS4G can be, being on the Nottingham LOC
>> of 2013, especially with the spectre of Beijing’s failed effort.
>>
>> Otherwise, I’d like to impress the efforts that we’ve made to widen
>> participation and access to FOSS4G, through writing off the cost of
>> attendance for TGP awardees, building partnerships with local and
>> international organisations (Crowd2Map, HOT, CGIAR/SILL) alongside the
>> traditional stable of OSGeo’s community. This will be broadest church of
>> users alongside our core constituency than ever before.
>>
>> I would query how valuable and used archiving has been for the community
>> - potentially better documentation and guides will better serve us. On
>> reviewing the previous stats for videos, even when we archive, it seems we
>> do not hit our intended audience after the events. I’d be happy for a
>> separate discussion on this.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> On 19 Jun 2018, at 18:26, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> The motion has two "disagree" -0 votes, but nobody did a "block" -1 vote
>> near as I can see?
>> Reading the comments Jeff intended to mark down a -1..
>>
>> So the discussion is not so much a bout sponsorship, but about strategy,
>> how to best support the event, and outreach in the region.
>>
>> Options:
>>
>> a) gold++
>> - gold sponsorship (enough for a booth)
>> - adjusting our budget for the TGP
>> - see if we can fund video recording
>>
>> b) platinum sponsorship
>> - provides a booth for osgeo activities
>> - we have the understanding that the additional funding is funnelled into
>> the TGP
>>
>> c) Tanzanite sponsorship
>> - ensure we headline our own conference in terms of support
>> - encourage LOC to use some of the funding for video processing and
>> sharing of talks
>>
>> Previously we ran into social difficulty sponsoring foss4g 2017,
>> understandable because we were also providing initial financial backing and
>> collecting revenue from the event. This is confusing for two reasons. A
>> mixed message of showing up as both a host and a sponsor. Also puts us
>> competing for attention with event sponsors who are paying for the
>> visibility of being seen. We primarily want to pay to support a great
>> event, outreach (TGP), and archive (videos if they can be recorded).
>>
>> I like the idea of having a gold sponsorship (look we are going to
>> struggle to populate a booth with people during the event) and then
>> explicitly focus on supporting the outreach (TGP) and archiving (video
>> recording if possible). I think it does not put us in competitions with
>> sponsors (we are already visible as host) and allows us to explore how we
>> can take on additional responsibility each year (TGP, Videos) rather than
>> watch expectations increase for each years local organizing committee.
>>
>> Consider this a request to separate the concerns, get OSGeo a booth and
>> then let OSGeo fund additional activities directly as our hearts (and
>> budget) dictates.
>>
>> If there is a desire to coordinate with the LOC specifically we could ask
>> if we could support the video/video processing as host (rather than as part
>> of sponsorship). I should note that such a sponsorship is usually very
>> valuable from a marketing standpoint as the exposure goes far beyond the
>> event (as an example look at this video wall for foss4gna
>> <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEqor3hXvGSofDWzQez3tbg>).
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jody Garnett
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 19 Jun 2018 at 14:15, María Arias de Reyna <delawen at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> So, we had some discussion about this on previous IRC meetings. As this
>>> year we didn't give any seed money for the organization of the main FOSS4G,
>>> we were planning to give sponsorship money. Remember that not used money
>>> goes back to OSGeo anyway.
>>>
>>> This year there is a special effort on Travel Grant, so most of the
>>> sponsorship money will be used for it. We want to support and push OSGeo in
>>> Africa.
>>>
>>> Here is the latest loomio poll: https://www.loomio.org/d/
>>> TaRPqFbs/platinum-sponsorship-for-foss4g-2018
>>>
>>> The motion didn't pass with a -1.
>>>
>>> Let the discussion start!
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Board mailing list
>>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Board mailing list
>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>>
>>
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